A BIT OF THE "MOB"; BLOG # 187; JUNE 12, 2015

THE MESSAGE:

A notorious heist was planned and executed by the New York Mob. Some of the actual background and connections were portrayed in the Movie, "Goodfellas". The crime is only being prosecuted today in the face of testimony from several witnesses and participants.

FIVE MEN ROB A LUFTHANSA CARGO HANGAR AT KENNEDY AIRPORT IN 1978.

Five masked gunmen slipped through a supposedly impenetrable security net and made off with an estimated $5 million in easily spendable American and foreign money. The mobsters also carried off another $300,000 to $500,000 in gold, pearls and jewelry to complete a heist. 

The bandits used stocking masks and were armed with .38 and .45 caliber handguns and a shotgun. Two gunmen circled around to a back entrance of cargo area and clipped a lock without activating an alarm. They then seized a guard making his rounds and forced him to deactivate a silent alarm and open the front entrance. This allowed a black van containing three more gunmen to enter the complex. With the guard in handcuffs, the five rushed the hangar, rounded up nine workers on their lunch break and locked them in a second-floor cafeteria. They forced a guard to reveal the combination to a safe. And then, for more than an hour, they looted a 14-by-14-foot cinder-block vault of 30 bags of cash and jewels. They loaded the booty into their van and fled.

Some believe this was an inside job because of the way they went through a sophisticated alarm system and their apparent familiarity with the layout and workings of the Lufthansa Complex.

VINCENT ASARO

Today, federal prosecutors have lined up an impressive list of 'stoolies' with knowledge of Vincent Asaro’s participation in the heist. The Bonanno Family gangster, is charged with the Lufthansa robbery. He wasted his nearly $1 million share of the loot by gambling at the racetrack. “If I got a winning ticket and I got to the window, I bet the next race whatever I won in that race, I bet the whole ticket!”. 

THE "RATS:"

MASSINO

Former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino will testify that he was Asaro’s captain at the time and was given by Asaro an attaché case filled with gold and jewelry as tribute. Asaro’s cousin, Gaspare Valenti, who also participated in the robbery, recently wore a wire to nail Asaro for the government.

VITALI

Ex-Bonanno underboss Salvatore Vitale will testify that he saw Massino, his brother-in-law, sorting through the jewelry and receiving a gold chain from the airport booty.

THE MASTERMIND:

JIMMY THE GENT

Two months after the holdup, Richard Eaton was strangled by James Burke over a drug deal financed by proceeds from the Lufthansa job. Burke, who died in prison in 1996,   is also known as 'Jimmy the Gent', and 'The Irishman'. He was an Irish American gangster and Lucchese crime family associate and is believed to have organized the 1978 Lufthansa heist.

SAMMY "THE BULL" GRAVANO

SAMMY THE BULL

JOHN GOTTI

Born in 1945 in Brooklyn, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano became the highest-ranking mafioso in history to turn government witness. His testimony helped to jail 36 of his former mafia associates and, as part of the deal, admitted to the murders of 19 people, including that of his brother-in-law. Gravano, was given a free pass for the murders and entered the government's Witness Protection Program. Gravano's freedom was his reward for ratting out John Gotti.

However, he didn't leave his life of crime behind. In the late 1990s, he began a multimillion-dollar Ecstasy trafficking faction in Arizona, and in 2000, he was arrested on trafficking charges. In 2001, he pleaded guilty to federal and state drug-trafficking charges, and the following year, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is currently serving his sentences in a Colorado prison.

MORE THAN A COUPLE OF  CAPOS (BOSSES)

VITO RIZZUTO

Vito Rizzuto was alleged to be the leading boss of the Sicilian Mafia in Canada. He headed the notorious Rizzuto crime family, based in Montreal.

When the Sicilian faction of the Italian Cotroni crime family dominated in Italy, Vito Rizzuto took control over the Montreal underworld. 

Vito spent time in a U.S. prison, and saw several members of his family killed.  On February 11, 2005, an arrest warrant was issued in Rome against Rizzuto in connection with alleged Mafia involvement. On December 23, 2013, Rizzuto died from complications of lung cancer at a Montreal hospital. He was 67.

LUCKY LUCIANO

He is the father of modern organized crime in the U.S.   Luciano split New York City into 5  families: Bonnano, Columbo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese. He created the first governing body of the American Mafia and became the first boss of the Genovese family. He later became the boss of the Luciano Family. From 1916 to 1936, Luciano was arrested 25 times for various crimes.

VITO GENOVESE

  

ilies 

The Capo di Tutti Capi. A friend of Luciano. He was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm and counterfeiting money before age 30. In 1959 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison on narcotics charges where he died of a heart attack in 1969.

JOHN GOTTI

He killed the Gambino boss, Paul Castellano, and took over the family. Got made millions each year from construction, loan sharking, gambling and extortion among other businesses. He was convicted of 5 murders and other crimes and sentenced to life in prison where he died from throat cancer in 2002.

I

THE QUESTION: 

Do you think the LUFTHANSA HEIST was an "inside job'?

"WELL DO YA PUNK"?

THE QUOTE: 

TWEET TWEET

"I'd like to do a number of films. Westerns. Genre pieces. Maybe another film about Italian Americans where they're not gangsters, just to prove that not all Italians are gangsters."
MARTIN  SCORSESE

THE LEMON:

Vito Rizzuto (February 21, 1946 – December 23, 2013) was alleged to be the leading boss of the Sicilian Mafia in Canada. He headed the notorious Rizzuto crime family based in Montreal.

THE CLIP: